Panel considers Wikipedia’s validity

David Goodman, Wikipedia administrator, spoke about
opportunities for users to get involved in Wikipedia page editing
last night in Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus.

With more than three million articles and counting, Wikipedia
administrator David Goodman and contributor Ann Matsuuchi spoke to
University librarians and professors yesterday about the growing
world of Wikipedia and the importance of open access
websites.

“The distinctive feature of being extremely large is the reason
that it works,” Goodman said. “Anybody can collect information and
start an encyclopedia and let it grow on with how many people get
involved with it.”

This program, hosted in the fourth floor lecture hall in Alexander
Library, is one of three events celebrating Open Access Week,
encouraging technologies without borders, said Laura Mullen,
librarian at the Library of Science and Medicine on Busch
campus.

“When you imagine who is behind Wikipedia, you don’t imagine
librarians,” said Matsuuchi, an instructional technology/systems
librarian at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. “Wikipedia was
intended to be an adult encyclopedia for anyone from the high
school level and up. It was not aimed at a subject field.”

Photo: Jennifer Miguel-HelLman

Ann Matsuuchi, an instructional technology/systems librarian at
LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, says Wikipedia was intended for
high school students and older last night on the College Avenue
campus.

The academic topics only contribute to a small part of the three
million articles on the English Wikipedia, Goodman said.

“On Wikipedia, there is a immense number of things to do. I can
pick what I want to work on,” he said. “It tends to be a little bit
addictive, that is why there is a relatively small number of
contributors.”

There are about 20,000 active volunteers contributing approximately
one to two hours a day with the mean age being college students,
Goodman said.

Coverage of rock and railroad trains is superlative while detailed
coverage of medieval history is sketchy because most people who
contribute do it as a hobby, Goodman said.

“This is why the size matters,” he said. “There’s a very wide range
of interests. Although medieval history may be the weakest topic, I
know five to 10 people who specialize in it.”

Kevin Mulcahy, a librarian in Alexander Library, said he encouraged
students to get away from the notion of not using Wikipedia as a
scholarly source.

“During a seminar [that I ran] on training teacher assistants how
to use the Internet in their courses, we demonstrated learning
through collaborating information from Wikipedia and compared it to
a regular website such as the depth of their abstract … and
currency of the information,” Mulcahy said.

Goodman said the proper way for students to use Wikipedia is as a
first resource like an encyclopedia.

“It’s not the only resort and students shouldn’t rely on it
completely. One of the ways we provide for people … is its
references,” he said. “Not everyone who edits is an expert. Why
would anyone believe it all?”

When Wikipedia says anyone can edit, anyone can edit, Goodman said.
People do not need to register in order to encourage attributers.
But if a user wanted to create a page, then they need to
register.

“People working on controversial sexual content, don’t wish to use
their name,” he said. “The topic of pornography apparently has a
strong page, but then again some don’t attribute themselves for
good reason. The authority is based on the number of
contributors.”

Goodman said no one thought the idea that unattributed edits and
would work on a large scale, but to their surprise the quality has
gone up substantially.

“Some of the articles are so good that people are using them for
newspaper material and doing stories off of them,” he said. “If it
were really reliable source then [it could be understandable]. The
other areas [excluding medicine] in general are not.”

Goodman said students should be cautious when citing the site as a
scholarly source.

“The article is going to change. It may change 100 times a day,” he
said. “The best way to cite the article is being citing the article
with a specific time.”

One audience member pointed out the gender inequality of
contributors on Wikipedia and asked what could be done to improve
the imbalance.